Breakdown of Gramy czterema pionkami na tej planszy.
ten
this (m)
grać
to play
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
cztery
four
Questions & Answers about Gramy czterema pionkami na tej planszy.
Why is the number four written as czterema here instead of cztery?
This is the core of the current lesson! When you talk about the tools or objects you use to do something, Polish uses the Instrumental case. Czterema is the Instrumental form of cztery. Since we are playing with the pawns, the number and the noun must both be in this case.
The English translation says 'with four pawns', so why isn't there a z (with) in the Polish sentence?
In Polish, the Instrumental case by itself already implies using an object as a tool. You only use the preposition z (with) when it means 'together with a person or thing' (for example, gramy z kolegą - we are playing with a friend). Since the pawns are the tools we are using to play the game, we just use the Instrumental case directly: czterema pionkami.
What happens to the word pionek to make it pionkami?
Pionkami is the Instrumental plural form of pionek (pawn or game piece). Notice that the letter 'e' in pionek disappears when we add an ending. This is a fleeting vowel that drops out, leaving the stem pionk-. Then we add the standard Instrumental plural ending -ami.
Why does ta plansza (this board) change to tej planszy?